Sin and Sensibility

The word "sin" is almost always used in a religious context, so I find it strange that people who are not religious would talk about it.  A religious person would say "I sinned", while a non religious person would be more likely to say "I made a mistake", or maybe "I screwed up".  I seem to be more comfortable with words like "right, wrong, good, and bad". I'm not sure why, maybe it's because I used to be religious and now I'm not anymore.  Each of us makes value judgements from time to time and, let's face it, the values upon which we base our judgements are largely cultural.  While a person might reject some of the values he grew up with, he usually replaces them with different values that he has gleaned from other cultures.  He may internalize those values to the point that he believes he originated them, but he's just kidding himself.

Words like "good and right" are not limited to a moral context. Sometimes we say that something is good or right because it works or seems to make sense.  It is in that context that I keep insisting that the way our government is handling the current immigration crisis is wrong.  It doesn't make sense to me the they apprehend illegal immigrants, detain them for a period of time, and then release them with instructions to appear before a judge in a year or two when they know that most of them will not show up.  It would be better to just throw open the gates and let them enter unhindered. At least then they wouldn't have to feed and house them.  Better than that would be to have some sort of screening process set up right at the border so the applicants can be screened before they enter the country.  My esteemed colleagues seem to think that there is nothing wrong with having the country over run with illegal immigrants.  Well, they have a right to their opinion the same as I do.

Uncle Ken has asserted that the number of violent criminals illegally crossing the border with the refugees is insignificant.  I have asserted that this is contrary to what I have been reading in the news media.  Although I didn't identify specific sources, I will try to remember to do so the next time I come across one.  All I asked was if Uncle Ken has access to different information than I do, assuming that he has been reading the same articles that I have.  It just occurred to me that he might have just read different articles than I have, which is possible because he follows the news more than I do.  Be that as it may, answer me this if you can:  If the crime rate among the immigrants is less than it is among indigenous Americans, then what are the immigrants seeking asylum from?  I find it hard to believe that they would flee their homelands and undertake the dangerous and arduous journey across Mexico if they though conditions in the US wouldn't be any better than what they were leaving behind.

Jurors do indeed get paid, although not very much, and a typical juror would lose money if he had to take off work for jury duty, which is one reason why many people don't want to serve on a jury.  I was fortunate when I served on a jury that my employer made up the difference between my jury pay and my lost wages.  This was not a law, it was a negotiated benefit in our union contract.  Another reason I favor a full time jury in my BIP is that it's kind of a laborious process selecting a new jury for each trial.  I understand the need for it in a regular court, but I don't think it would be necessary in this application.  As I said, we don't even have to call it a jury, we can call it a board of review or something like that.  They wouldn't be expected to identify potential criminals, just the ones that had already done something.  Of course they won't catch them all, but I thought we might have a better chance with them than relying on information from the immigrants' home countries.  Like I said, this plan has some bugs in it, but at least it's a plan.  I would scrap the whole thing and start all over again if my esteemed colleagues were willing to join me in that effort.

I have little experience with garlic.  I understand that it's in the sausages that I eat, but I have no idea how it got there.